Le mot du Délégué général
Monday, October 05, 2009
Dear Friends,
Back-to-school in September is traditionally the busiest time for the teaching Alliance chapters in our network. With back-to-school now behind us, the first reports from this session are positive overall, showing significant growth of class sizes in some cities, such as Chicago, Denver and New York. It seems that the recession’s effects have softened for the majority of American Alliances, which went through legitimately troubling times over the past 12 months but which all knew to take the necessary means to weather the storm.
The cultural and artistic season kicked off on September 9 with economist Michael Maibach’s tour, organized in partnership with WACA, and with harpist and vocalist Cécile Corbel’s tour. From now until the end of the year, 13 lecturers and artists will tour North America, Iceland, Central America, the Caribbean and Columbia, for a total of 57 appearances.
We are continuing to systematically and methodically collect 2008 questionnaires. For those Alliance chapters that have not yet done so, please, please send in the form with the requested information to with a copy to . We will then be able to show in an upcoming AF en Bref a snapshot of the network’s activity in 2008, like we did last year, one which we would like to be as accurate as possible.
The 2009-2010 meetings have now all been confirmed. Following the annual meeting of the Federation, which will take place in Chicago from October 22-25, will be the Colloque de la Fondation Alliance Française à Paris, from January 25-27, 2010. The Directors’ meeting, bringing together directors, and pedagogical, cultural and media center coordinators, will take place from February 18-19, 2010 in … San Francisco. We would like to thank the team of this Alliance for welcoming colleagues for an event that is so vital to our network and we invite all of you who would like to attend to sign up online as of today (usual id and password). A draft agenda , as well as special rates at a hotel near the AFSF will be announced in the next AF en Bref.
From Washington, where we are having a beautiful Indian summer, I wish you a lovely fall.
Cordially,
Thierry